Beginner's Build Part II: Why Should I Lift? (Part II)
How Resistance Training Impacts Physical Performance
Last time in this series, I explained why living better–specifically, increasing both your lifespan and healthspan–is a strong reason to lift weights. Here, I’ll explain my second answer to the question, “Why should I lift?”.
Perform Better
In terms of physical performance, athletes commonly use resistance training to increase their strength, power, and size. Thinking about individuals with zero resistance training experience, I think these athletic benefits are particularly valuable to teenage athletes, for whom one of the biggest differences between the middle school or freshman levels and making junior varsity or varsity is often strength and size.
And, the benefits of strength and size extend to recreational athletes beyond the high school level as well. If you’ve ever found yourself in the paint during a pick-up adult basketball game, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Importantly, regarding recreational sports, increasing your strength and size not only allows you to be more successful on the scoreboard but also helps in avoiding injuries that keep you off of the court or field for an extended period of time. Additionally, if you consider that most physical therapy programs involve strengthening exercises, it’s also no surprise that resistance training also plays a beneficial role in recovering from injuries.
Now, though resistance training is typically associated with strength, power, and size, its performance benefits are not limited here.
As I covered in a previous post, contrary to the common image of stiff and inflexible muscleheads, lifting weights through full ranges of motion offers significant benefits for mobility and flexibility. Specifically, one study comparing the effects of stretching, resistance training (RT), and stretching plus resistance training on range of motion (ROM) found the following:
“The beneficial effects of RT on ROM were not significantly different from stretch training or the combination of RT and stretch training versus stretch training alone. Although both groups improved ROM with RT, “untrained and sedentary” individuals had a significantly (p = 0.005) higher magnitude of ROM change (ES = 1.042; p < 0.001) compared with “trained or active people” (ES = 0.43; p < 0.001).” (I)
So, not only did resistance training produce similar improvements in range of motion as stretching, it produced the greatest improvements in untrained and sedentary individuals–i.e. people who didn’t resistance train before.
On top of improvements in range of motion, some research suggests that resistance training is also beneficial for endurance performance via improvements in running economy, tendon stiffness, muscle power, and 1.5k to 10k race times. (II)
To be fair, most of the studies from that systematic review utilized lifting protocols focused on maximal and reactive strength rather than building muscle per se. But, it’s reasonable to consider that training can be modified to bolster all three goals: building muscle, increasing strength, and improving endurance.
And, since, in my experience, many recreational endurance athletes do not resistance train at all, they represent another population that can benefit from going from zero resistance training to regularly lifting.
So, from competitive or recreational athletes to people with injuries or mobility issues and recreational runners, improving physical performance is another motivator for regularly lifting weights.
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